The present invention relates to broadcast and receiving systems, and more specifically, to interactive broadcast and receiving systems.
Interactive information systems allow an information provider to broadcast information to a user, and in some cases allow a user to send a response to a vendor. The user may receive the information on a wide variety of devices, such as a pager, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant or a television. An interactive information system on which the user receives the information using a television is called an interactive television system.
Some interactive information systems insert and extract data into unused lines in the Vertical Blanking Interval, or VBI, of the conventional television transmission for decoding by a set-top device. The VBI is a portion of the television picture which is broadcast, but not typically seen by the television viewer, and readily allows for insertion of data, such as closed captioning text. The VBI can provide an inexpensive transport for transmitting data to a user, but not for transporting data from a user, for example to allow a user to order goods or services from a vendor.
Other communication methods provide inexpensive communication between a user and a vendor. For example, communication between a user and a vendor via modem-coupled telephone lines such as internet lines can provide a relatively inexpensive way to communicate. However, to provide a convenient interface to order goods or services from a vendor, the user must be able to communicate confidential information such as a credit card number or other payment information to the vendor. Inexpensive communication lines may not be suitably secure to allow a user to conveniently and inexpensively communicate confidential information to a vendor via an interactive information system.
In addition, to enhance the convenience of ordering goods or services via an interactive information system, the system should automatically route ordering and user information to the proper vendor. Because some interactive information systems use low-bandwidth transports, it is helpful to send as little information to the user as possible. Thus a compact method of sending routing information is desirable.
Some user-responses require anonymity to ensure accuracy, such as responses to a user questionnaire. Thus, it is desirable to allow anonymous responses to be sent via an interactive information system.
A method and apparatus allows information including confidential information to be communicated to a proper vendor via an interactive information system without requiring the user to send confidential information over unsecure communication lines.
An interactive information system application is assigned an application identifier which is transmitted to the user with the interactive information system application. The application identifier is sent to a response collector, which performs the function described below, along with routing information to describe the routing of responses to a vendor who will process them.
A user may be assigned one or more identifiers, one corresponding to the user equipment used to send and receive interactive information, and another identifier to allow the identification of a specific individual if more than one individual will use the user equipment. These identifiers and other information, including confidential information such as a credit card number are sent by the user to a response collector via an interactive information system for use as described below. If desired, the response collector may verify the information, such as ensuring that the user""s stated address matches the credit card billing address.
An interactive information system application containing the application identifier is broadcast to the user. To submit a response such as an order using the interactive information system application, the user instructs the interactive information system to transmit the application identifier, one or more user identifiers and other response information such as model number and quantity to a response collector over a communication line. Because no confidential information is sent, inexpensive, unsecure communication lines may be used by the user to communicate with the response collector. The response collector assembles the user""s information including confidential information and sends it to the vendor via the routing information associated with the application identifier. Because only the application identifier is sent to the user, the system is compatible with low-bandwidth transports, yet automatically routes user responses to a vendor for processing.
Some responses do not include the user identifiers to allow users to send anonymous responses via the interactive information system.